To: Executive Committee, Arts and Sciences
Senate
From:
Robert Cerrato, Chair, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
Re:
2002-2003 Annual Report
Date:
September, 2003
The
curriculum committee met 21 times during the 2002-2003 academic year. Committee
members were: Robert Cerrato (marine sciences and chair of the committee),
Nancy Tomes (history), Catherine Marrone (sociology), Andreas Mayr (chemistry),
Judith Lochhead (music), Sarah Sternglanz (women’s studies), Malcolm Read
(Hispanic languages and literature), Arlene Feldman (Transfer Office), Ada
Hasloecher (undergraduate representative), Christine Promin (graduate
representative), Elaine Kaplan (College of Arts and Sciences, ex officio
member), and Kathleen Breidenbach (College of Arts and Sciences, ex officio
secretary).
Routine
matters are handled by the secretary and announced to the committee at each
meeting. There were a number of routine
matters chiefly involving deletion of courses and changes of course titles,
descriptions, and/or prerequisites to bring them in line with current teaching
in preparation for the new bulletin.
The
committee also approved two small changes to the new course proposal form: the
form now asks the instructor to identify the grading basis (e.g., A-F, A-C/U,
S/U) and includes a statement informing instructors that if the course is
offered toward satisfaction of a general education requirement, the syllabus
must include a statement of the learning outcomes of that requirement.
The
committee met with Dean James V. Staros in the fall semester to discuss his own
vision of the curriculum and how the committee interfaces with his office.
Cerrato reported that functioning is quite smooth. Staros said he was
particularly concerned about the gap between freshmen retention and graduation
rates and suspected the vulnerable period was the student’s sophomore year.
There was also discussion about Stony Brook Manhattan; Staros said it was
important not to dilute the traditional offerings to students on campus just to
take advantage of the new space.
Several
new topics courses with appropriate D.E.C. designations were created. In
addition, two new D.E.C. category J art history courses, in Islamic and Indian
art, were approved.
The committee approved the change of courses in Chinese
studies and South Asian Studies to the designator AAS. In addition, the
committee approved introduction of two new art history courses to be
crosslisted with AAS.
The committee approved revisions to several courses and a new minor in Adapted Aquatics, sponsored by the department of Physical Education. The minor also leads to adapted aquatics certification.
Biology
Biology
was particularly generative (as is only befitting!) [that’s a joke, guys]; the committee approved a number of new
courses (especially in molecular biology), a new bioethics course, and several
experimental courses, including an extension of a special seminar conducted
online and attached to BIO 203 Cell and Organ Physiology.
Chinese Studies minor and
courses
The
committee approved a significant revision to the minor requirements and to the
advanced language courses. It was a case where assistance from the committee
greatly strengthened the revised language offerings and both the instructors
and the committee were pleased with the results.
Communications
The
committee received proposals for several new communications courses and a draft
of a proposal for a communications minor. The committee said they could not
consider the proposals unless the forms were signed by an academic department
chair and the courses had been reviewed by the faculty in the department
sponsoring the minor.
D.E.C. regulations
The
committee approved a request to change the rule on college courses taken while
the student was in high school, and taken in the high school building.
Previously these courses could only be used to satisfy D.E.C. categories E
Natural Sciences, F Social and Behavioral Sciences, and G Humanities. The
committee recommended to the University Senate that these courses be allowed to
count toward all D.E.C. categories. The change was subsequently approved by the
full Senate.
The
committee approved new field methods courses in each of the areas in which
Stony Brook offers teacher education (foreign language, social studies,
mathematics, English, and science), in accordance with mandates from NCATE.
European Languages,
Literatures, and Cultures
The
committee endorsed a plan to develop a joint BA/MAT program in foreign language
teacher education. The committee also reviewed a revised proposal, first
submitted in Spring 2002, to create a new European Studies major. While the
major was not approved, it is expected that after some modifications by the
department, the committee will be able to approve the major in the fall 2003
semester.
The
committee approved several temporary, experimental courses for the spring and
fall semester. The experimental course proposal process thus far seems to be an
effective means of offering alternative courses and allowing instructors the
freedom to experiment. Perhaps the most interesting example was of an online
recitation section of BIO 203, which allowed the instructor to experiment with
online methods of instruction.
Health Science course
The
committee approved the first Health Sciences Center course to satisfy a D.E.C.
category. The School of Health Technology and Management proposed a course, HAS
192 Introduction to Autism Disorders, as satisfying D.E.C. category F Social
and Behavioral Sciences. The syllabus was a model of what members would like to
see in the future: it included a clear statement of the learning outcomes of
the requirement and how the course would meet those outcomes.
Physics
The
committee reluctantly approved the splitting of laboratories for PHY 121, 122
Physics for Life Sciences and PHY 131, 132 Classical Physics for administrative
reasons. The splitting allows students more flexibility in scheduling and
allows the department not to tie recitation size to lab size. The department
intends to offer the lecture and lab with a common grade. The committee expects
the instructors to make this extremely clear to students. In addition,
enforcement of the corequisite should ensure students take both courses at the
same time. The committee also approved several new courses in physics,
including some one-credit courses to introduce students to the field and
current research in physics. Finally, the department introduced two new
introductory physics courses—Physics of Sports—intended for a general audience
and designed to prepare athletic training majors. Members believed the courses
would be quite popular.
Physical Education
Because
of the new adapted aquatics minor and athletic training major, a change to the
rules on use of PEC credits toward the degree was required. The committee
approved a change that stipulates that only 4 credits of 100-level (activity)
PEC courses could be used toward the degree. All the upper-division courses are
academic in nature and apply toward the major and minor and therefore should be
allowed toward the bachelor’s degree.
Political Science
The
committee received a proposal from an adjunct to offer a course on “Careers in
Public Service” in the high schools for college credit. While the committee had
no objection to a department offering a course for credit in a high school,
members believed that course must at least be at the college level. The course
that was submitted was clearly not, consisting largely of fieldtrips to
different county agencies, and the proposal was rejected.
Sociology
Twenty-four
sociology courses that had been removed from D.E.C. category F Social and
Behavioral Sciences were restored at the request of the department. The courses
had been removed three years earlier in response to the SUNY general education
mandate; because the prerequisites to the courses satisfied DEC category F,
students would already have satisfied the category. The department instead opted
to change the prerequisites to the courses and allow them to satisfy category
F. The committee also approved a new course, Global Issues in the United
Nations, which uses video conferencing with UN ambassadors.
Undergraduate Colleges and
College Seminars
The
committee met with Deputy Provost Mark Aronoff to discuss the new Undergraduate
Colleges. At the time, the Colleges’ relation to existing programs such as
Learning Communities, WISE and Honors College was yet to be resolved. Aronoff
said the Colleges were a way of strengthening and taking advantage of the
living learning centers and would provide a continuing living learning
environment for students who wished to persist with the College theme beyond
the freshman year. Separately, a course proposal for the first college seminar
(a one-credit topics course for the College of Information and Technology
Studies) was submitted to the committee and was not approved. Committee members
asked the faculty director of the college to draw up guidelines for the amount
of work to be required of students. There was concern that some faculty might
make too many demands on students for a one credit course and the students’
other courses might suffer. Later the course was approved by the CEAS
curriculum committee (CTPC) and was offered in spring 2003 by arrangement of
the dean of CEAS. There was consternation among committee members that their
approval was not also required because so many of the students taking these
courses were and would be Arts and Sciences students. Throughout the year,
there was concern about lack of information about how the colleges were
actually going to work and how they would interface with existing programs.
Women’s Studies
The
committee approved several changes which strengthen the major and remove the
“shopping list” quality of the requirements, including the introduction of a
new core course.
Senate Constitution and
By-Laws, Committee By-Laws
The
committee reviewed the constitutions and by-laws and proposed clarifications to
the committee’s stated purview. A clear statement that the curriculum committee
is responsible for general education requirements and courses was added. A
statement was also added that the committee may consider other issues of
undergraduate curricular import. There was some concern about proposed changes
to professional representation; there had been some discussion in the Senate
Executive Committee about removing professional representation or removing the
voting rights of professional representatives. In the end, the senate
stipulated that the dean’s representative (as distinct from the secretary, who
is and has been an ex officio non-voting member appointed by the dean) should
no longer be a voting member of the committee. In general, it was no seen that
this change would significantly affect the functioning of the committee. There
was greater concern about another change the Senate approved: this change bars
professional employees from academic-related areas outside the Senate
constituencies (Arts and Sciences, Marine Sciences Research Center, Physical
Education and Athletics) from serving on senate standing committees. This would
mean the current professional representative, Arlene Feldman from the Transfer
Office, would be ineligible to serve. Committee members believed strongly that
this change should be reversed, since representatives from many student
services and academic affairs areas bring their own experience and expertise to
the committee and since committee decisions often directly impact their own
positions.
For
most of the year, the committee awaited information about how to proceed with
SUNY general education courses. and continued to approve courses toward the
D.E.C., pending instructions. In the fall semester, the committee registered a
protest with the A&S Senate to a proposed compromise whereby a SUNY
senate-appointed committee (ACGE) would be final arbiter in cases where the
SUNY provost’s office disagreed with the opinion of the local campus curriculum
committee on which courses could satisfy which general education
categories. In the spring semester, the
committee chair received a request to provide a statement about the campus’s
general education approval process and guidelines. There was considerable concern
about the lack of information and communication: the memo from SUNY reminding
campuses of the need to submit such statements referred to a January memo to
presidents which included the new guidelines for SUNY-GER that had not been
shared with the committee, so the committee didn’t know what the review and
approval process would be. The committee received a request for the provost’s
office for the statement only days before it was due to SUNY. By the end of the
semester, there were still a number of unresolved issues: the campus’s policy
on general education courses had yet to be approved; the status of ACGE—whether
it is advisory to the SUNY provost or has the final decision on courses offered
toward general education requirements—was still unclear; the campus procedure
for submission of course approval forms to SUNY had yet to be worked out. The
impact on course offerings, however, was expected to be significant. The need
to submit courses to SUNY for approval before they may be offered as satisfying
a particular D.E.C. category could significantly delay new course offerings.
The
committee also briefly considered a draft proposal for assessing SUNY general
education learning outcomes. The curriculum committee expected to continue to
work with those developing the assessment plan over the next year or two. There
were concerns about assessment of non-quantitative disciplines and their
inherent subjectivity and the potential to use assessment to judge faculty.
respectfully
submitted,
kb
: )